Earnings

To ask the Secretary of State for Employment, further to his letter of 11 January to the hon. Member for Great Grimsby, replying further to his holding answer of 19 December to the hon. Member for Great Grimsby,Official Report, 20 December, column 235, whether he will publish in the Official Reporta table showing the percentage median, quartile and decile increases in weekly earnings in each case between 1972–79 and 1979–89.

To ask the Secretary of State for Employment if he will publish in theOfficial Reporta table showing the percentage increase since April 1979 to the latest available date in real hourly and weekly earnings of full-time manual male employees in manufacturing industry and of full-time non-manual male employees in the rest of the private sector together with the increase in output per hour and per head in manufacturing and in the rest of the private sector or, failing that, the rest of the economy.

The real increases in average gross hourly and weekly earnings of full-time adult manual male employees in manufacturing industry from April 1979 to April 1989 (the latest available date) were 15 per cent. and 14 per cent. respectively. Figures are not readily available for the private sector less manufacturing and would involve
disproportionate cost to compile.

The increases in manufacturing output per hour and output per head between April 1979 and November 1989 were 52 per cent. and 51 per cent. respectively. The increase in output per head in the whole economy less manufacturing between the second quarter of 1979 and the third quarter of 1989 was 12 per cent. Output per hour data are not available for
sectors other than manufacturing.